California tells San Francisco, Valley farmers to halt water diversions as drought worsens

State regulators have ordered the town of San Francisco and scores of San Joaquin Valley farmers to cease pulling water from Valley rivers, the newest signal of worsening circumstances in California’s drought.

The water-rights “curtailment orders” issued by the State Water Assets Management Board have an effect on San Francisco’s means to drag water from the Tuolumne River, one in all its most vital water sources. Others affected embrace the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, which ship water to farmers and residents within the northern San Joaquin Valley from the Tuolumne. All instructed, 212 public water methods are affected by the transfer.

Erik Ekdahl, the state board’s deputy director, stated Tuesday the transfer quantities to “vital, very deep cuts and curtailments.”

The order doesn’t imply faucets will go dry in San Francisco. Water already held in storage isn’t affected, and the San Francisco Chronicle reported that reservoirs managed by the town have comparatively robust provides.

The curtailments are principally centered on the San Joaquin Valley, and the board doesn’t anticipate to curtail many water rights on the Sacramento River. However farmers and different rights holders on the Sacramento have already misplaced huge quantities of their water this 12 months attributable to separate cutbacks mandated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, leading to widespread idling of rice fields within the Sacramento Valley.

The board made comparable strikes final August. What makes Tuesday’s transfer so placing is that occurred in early June, one other troubling indicator of the severity of the drought, now in its third 12 months.

Ekdahl, in a presentation to the state board, famous that the wet season is over and the Sierra Nevada snowpack is successfully gone, which means the state can’t anticipate any reduction for its parched reservoirs till fall. “We’re not going to get a big pulse of latest snowmelt at this level,” he stated. “There is no such thing as a extra snow to soften.”

In the meantime, new figures launched by the state board present that city Californians stay largely detached to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s name for 15% voluntary water conservation.

The board stated per-capita city water consumption in April fell by 7% in comparison with a 12 months earlier — and was 17% increased in comparison with April 2020.

All instructed, city Californians have diminished consumption by simply 2% for the reason that governor known as for financial savings final summer season.

The truth that water utilization fell in April in comparison with a 12 months earlier was “a minimum of heartening,” stated board Chairman E. Joaquin Esquivel.

Others, although, stated the conservation numbers must get quite a bit higher. “These are usually not the numbers we wished to see, and they aren’t the numbers we have to see,” stated Adel Hagekhalil, basic supervisor of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Newsom has threatened to impose necessary statewide cuts on city utilization if the conservation figures don’t enhance.

This story was initially printed June 8, 2022 11:52 AM.